Wednesday, May 18, 2011

What do you want to be when you grow up??

What do you want to be when you grow up? This is a universal question that we were all asked when we were growing up.Normally, you get the cliché answers….”I want to be rich and famous, I want to start my own business, I want to be a doctor or lawyer, etc…”What happen to those aspirations?Why aren’t we rich and famous by now or working towards it?Why aren’t we working to start our own business?When we were younger, we thought anything was possible.What happen to that mindset?I will tell you…the WORLD.Once we grew older, we were faced with the harsh realities of the real world.What do we have to do to get that passion back to achieve our highest aspirations?We have to take ACTION of our life NOW!We are not going to let the world’s distractions steer us from achieving our goals anymore.I hear you saying…”I am broke…I am too old…I have family responsibilities”.If you really want it, you will stretch yourself to achieve it.When you define your definite purpose in life and commit to it, nothing will stop you.My mom went back to school to get her masters in her 40’s.Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that she had four kids to care for and she commuted 45 minutes to get to class.The world and the naysayers want you to believe that you can’t go for your goals.I hear you doubting yourself saying…”What if I try and FAIL?”What if you try and SUCCEED?Think about the self-gratification you will receive for going for your dreams.To me that feeling is priceless.That will exceed any monetary value you may receive for accomplishing your dreams.What happens if I fail?First and foremost let’s erase the word FAILURE out of our vocabulary.For now on let’s use setbacks, because when you fail you give up.As dream chasers, we will stay persistence and won’t stop until our dreams are accomplished.We will show perseverance through no matter what.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLE

I have a good friend of mine, for the sake of this blog we are going to call him Jackie, that graduated from a four year university with a technical degree.Like many others that graduated in his class, he had trouble finding a job.Matter fact, he was trying to find a job for over a year.Think about all the setbacks he faced with companies turning him down or him chasing leads that led him nowhere.Through it all, I did not hear him have a negative attitude or complained about his situation not once.Through prayer and soul searching, he determined that the jobs he was looking for wasn’t his true passion.His real passion was to own a fine dining restaurant.So what did he do, he moved to Atlanta to attend a culinary arts school.He didn’t make excuses or procrastinate, he took ACTION!He is currently enrolled in one of the nation’s top culinary art schools.His grades are excellent and he just landed a job at one of Atlanta’s top restaurants.When he first received notice that he was hired at the restaurant, I never saw him so excited!Granted, his salary made not be an engineer’s salary or a doctor’s, but the self gratification he received for pursing his dreams is worth far more in value.He started that job with a meager salary, but having the mindset that one day he will own a restaurant you will think that he was hired as a CEO.Right now he is working for the experience and building his network. In other words, he is giving before he receives.

That is one factor that holds a lot of people back from accomplishing their dreams.Many people want to RECIEVE, but none are willing to GIVE first.They let their pride get in the way. Take platinum selling artist Drake for instance.He put out free mixtapes for over a year before he dropped his first album.As a result, he sold like +450,000 albums his first week!If you have a selfish attitude of always wanting to receive first, I highly suggest you change it because it will take you nowhere.Maybe in the beginning you will achieve some success, but in the long run you will be passed up by that individual who has the generous attitude.The Christian faith is built on serving others.I guarantee you, the more people you serve, the bigger and better your results!

In closing, I would like to leave you with this question to ponder on…”Imagine you and God having a cup of coffee and he told you to help as many people as possible without expecting anything in return, would you do it?”